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Thursday, July 22, 2004
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RETAIL POLITICS, WHOLESALE HORSESHIT
President Bush has been campaigning for re-election for almost a year and yesterday, for the first time, spoke about what he'd actually do if he wins. The themes that Bush/Cheney '04 have so far consisted of "unless I'm re-elected, you're all going to die" and "John Kerry is one duplicitous motherfucker, aint he?" The first is just smart politics and worked very well for President Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944. The second is seredipitous in that it just happens to be true.
Ordinarily, a candidate would want his goals for a second term broadcast as widely as possible. Big, televised speeches are usually planned for such an announcement. The president didn't do that. Instead, he did it at a Republican fundraiser. Be very, very wary when candidates won't campaign on their agenda and only outline it people who pay you 2 grand for room temperature chicken. This usually means that someone is full of shit.
Apparently, the Los Angeles Times managed to ferret a reporter into the fundraiser. Unfortunately, the Times requires registration to read its articles. Several of my readers live overseas and are unable to register for North American news sites. The rest of you are paranoid shut-ins who refuse to register even false information (I use the name "Pedro Weinstein.") So, I'm left to do what I usually do in a pinch, and pilfer the article and copy/paste the relevant bits because linking it is pointless. Ah, the sacrifices I make you for you people. This shit is copyrighted! This shit could get me screwed! And do you thank me by sending me naked pictures of yourselves? No, no you don't. Ungrateful bitches.
WASHINGTON — For the first time in his reelection campaign, President Bush on Wednesday hinted that another four years in the White House could bring major changes to the nation's healthcare and retirement programs.
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger! This is often promised and never delivered. So long as old people are allowed to vote and unions and companies make political donations, both health and retirement reform are politically impossible. The first president to seek national health care was Truman. Nixon, Carter and Clinton all introduced plans as well. Notice how you're still not getting it? It turns out that democracy is bad for your health.
And don't start me on Social Security. Everyone knew that it would eventually bankrupt itself when they established it in 1936 (surprisingly, that was also an election year.) That's why it was supposed to be a temporary Depression relief program. But it turned out that people like getting "money for nothing." The "chicks for free" amendment was tragically opposed by the women's movement and died in the Senate.
In a half-hour address to 7,000 Republican donors, Bush promised a "new era of ownership" that would give Americans more control over their health insurance and savings plans and make healthcare less expensive. Though he offered few specifics, it was the president's strongest suggestion yet that he would forge ahead with a plan to create private retirement savings and health accounts.
Remember how the prescription drug benefit was supposed make stuff less expensive? It is now projected to cost nearly three times what it was expected to, and the fucking thing doesn't even start for another two years. This should be kept in mind.
He's got a point about a "new era of ownership" in America, though. America now owns Iraq. Hope you're enjoying it and can keep up the mortage payments.
Many Democrats have opposed such plans, saying they place benefits further out of reach for middle- and low-income people. But on Wednesday, Bush indicated that he would offer the proposals on the campaign trail in populist terms.
Actually, the Democrats would like for the government to fund these things until the government is bankrupt. They fail to notice that the president is bankrupting the government just fine without their help.
Oh, for the uninitiated, "populist terms" is poly-sci speak for offering people free stuff while speaking to them like they're idiots. Fortunately for the Republicans, voters love free stuff and most of them are idiots.
"During the next four years, we'll help more citizens to own their health plan, to own a piece of their retirement, to own their own home or their own small business," Bush said. "We'll usher in a new era of ownership in America with an agenda to help all our citizens save and build and invest so every person owns a part of the American dream."
Patent horseshit. Every word of the preceding paragraph is a colossal lie. Given the way this administration is spending money, taxes are are going to have go up very high, very soon to pay the bills. And if they don't, intrest rates will to pick up the slack. The average American citizen is going to have to sell their children into prostitution just to afford the morning paper within a decade.
And that's not to say that a vote for Kerry is any better. He wants to spend all the money in wildly irresponsible, too. He just wants to spend it in different wildly irresponsible ways. Whoever you vote for, your wallet is doomed.
The president's comments signaled a return to his 2000 theme of "compassionate conservatism," a mantra intended to appeal to moderate swing voters who supported government's role in such areas as public education while also appeasing a conservative base wary of the mounting budget deficit.
"Government should never try to control or dominate the lives of our citizens. Yet government can and should help citizens gain the tools to make their own choices and to improve their own lives. There is no greater force for good in the world [than] the energy of free people," Bush said, speaking at a fundraising dinner at the Washington Convention Center.
I remember the "compassionate conservative" theme. I was impressed by it. It made me think that a Bush administration wouldn't do things like propose a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage or effectively kill stem-cell reasearch because some Jesus yahoos think that fetus microbes can damn their eternal souls. I know, I know, I was the most niaive 30 year old on my block. I feel better that some 8 million Democrats bought it, too and voted for Bush.
Bush's remarks struck a contrast to his intense focus on foreign policy and self-described status as a "war president," in effect acknowledging that the election would also be decided by domestic concerns.
This is "acknowledged" because it is a historical fact. The last election that was won solely on foreign policy was in 1896, when William McKinley wondered if he needed a reason to go to war with Spain, or if he could just make one up. That's how America began its close, friendly relationship with Cuba. I could make a snotty comment on the past being prologue here, but I'm feeling charitable, so I won't.
Although the Iraq war remains prominent in voters' minds, a new survey by the Pew Center for the People & the Press shows the GOP losing ground on key domestic issues. On healthcare, for instance, half of registered voters say the Democrats would do the best job revamping healthcare, while 23% said that of Republicans.
These numbers bear out the perception that the Democrats are the party of mindless entitlement programs that no one can afford. The president is doing everything in his power to change that perception.
Many of the president's remarks in Wednesday's speech touched on familiar themes, such as limiting lawsuit awards, curbing welfare programs and strengthening marriage, passing an energy plan to reduce dependency on foreign oil, promoting job training at community colleges and crafting "reasonable and fair" business regulations.
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
But his new focus on healthcare suggests the president is angling to make that a critical issue — seizing on a topic that is likely to be an important theme for Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic nominee.
When can we quit calling Kerry the "presumed Democratic nominee?" Does anyone out there seriously expect that Dennis Kucinich will come from behind between now and next Thursday? Shit, I think I have more delegates at the convention than he does at this point.
Polls continue to show the race a tossup in more than a dozen states that will decide the election, and some analysts have said in recent days that Bush risks losing ground if he does not begin to outline a second-term agenda.
Oh, I didn't mention that if you don't live in one of eighteen states, your vote doesn't count this year, did I? I'll probably tell you why in the next week or so.
Though Bush's proposals probably will spark controversy, his agenda appears to be less ambitious than his record — one that includes significant shifts in education policy, massive tax cuts, a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, rewriting of environmental and labor regulations and efforts to appoint more conservative judges to the federal courts.
The reason for the scaled-back ambitions, analysts say, is the mounting deficit.
Hold the phone! Continued tax cuts and "reform" of Social Security and Medicare are "scaled-back ambitions?" What the fuck was he planning? Sending every voter's children to Europe for college?
The deficit in fiscal year 2004, which ends Sept. 30, is predicted to approach $500 billion — an increase from the 2003 deficit of $374 billion. Bush administration officials blame the numbers on the war on terrorism, but critics say the tax cuts and other domestic programs are to blame.
Can't we all just get along? Let's just split the difference and say that both were incredibly stupid and expensive. By the way, when administration officials say "the war on terrorism", they usually follow it up with "you know, like in Iraq and what we're going to do in North Ko....Oh shit! That was off the record! This interview is OVER!"
To date, Bush's campaign speeches have focused largely on promoting his record — arguing that the invasion of Iraq and his handling of the war on terrorism has proved successful, promoting the No Child Left Behind education legislation, and contending that his tax cuts have spurred job growth.
He also has devoted much of his time — and $80 million in TV ads — to attacking Kerry as a liberal and a flip-flopper.
$80 million sounds like a lot. But the president has raised about $235 million for his campaign. It's good to see that he can manage someone's money.
Democrats said late Wednesday they were not impressed.
They never are. That's why the president calls them "pessimists."
It was clear Wednesday that Bush was not ready to lay down the gloves.
As dinner guests settled in Wednesday, campaign ads were displayed on large screens. One attacked Kerry for voting against money for troops in Iraq. Another showed clips of onetime Democratic front-runner Howard Dean screaming to supporters in Iowa.
I don't know bout everyone else, but I love that Dean tape. I want to run a loop of it at my wedding instead of hiring a band. I could watch that forever.
Bush hammered away at Kerry, chastising him again for the nasty tone expressed at a New York fundraiser this month in which celebrities called the president a "thug" and comedian Whoopi Goldberg mocked Bush's name as a sexual innuendo.
He described the event as Kerry reaching out to his base, "his Hollywood friends."
If there's one thing that's a given in politics, it's that Americans hate Hollywood. Unless, you know, the Friends finale is on or there's a Spiderman sequel coming. And when was the last time you heard Whoopi Goldberg's name prefaced with the word "comedian?"
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